Russian Women
“What are the Problems Contemporary Russian Women Face with in Social, Professional and Family Life?”
Nowadays, with the raising activeness of women in Russian society, many changes occur in many spheres of life. Yet the changes did not affect the whole Russia homogeneously, because Russia is bigger in terms of its size and population, these regions differ greatly in their culture, religion, economy and ethnicity (Motiejunaite and Kravchenko 43). However, Russian culture is an old civilization which is shaped under the effects of many political reform and ideology during last century. All of these features influence the general society structure, so many gender differences and roles specialize and become a major determinants of contemporary Russian culture. In this research, these determinants and their impacts will be analyzed deeply and many problems of Russian women are underlined in the light of scholars’ ideas from different corners of world. Moreover, if we make a comparison between Russia and other regions in which women suffer from lack of freedom, Russia seem a developed country with given equal rights to men and women. Yet indeed, there are many things that should be mentioned about conventional Russian women who share similar problem and destiny with women from other cultures. Even if it is obvious that Russia carries the traces of communism and egalitarian policy, there are still problems for women caused by gender differences especially in family, professional and social life.
Lower valuation and other problems of women continues in Russian society under the effect of modernism as well as traditionalism and its impact lead to numerous problems such as widespread cohabitations, falling birthrates and gender division in many areas. Russian reforms even today invest in maintaining and reinforcing gender roles, although Western World does not approve such an inequality between genders (Kerig, Alyoshina and
Nowadays, with the raising activeness of women in Russian society, many changes occur in many spheres of life. Yet the changes did not affect the whole Russia homogeneously, because Russia is bigger in terms of its size and population, these regions differ greatly in their culture, religion, economy and ethnicity (Motiejunaite and Kravchenko 43). However, Russian culture is an old civilization which is shaped under the effects of many political reform and ideology during last century. All of these features influence the general society structure, so many gender differences and roles specialize and become a major determinants of contemporary Russian culture. In this research, these determinants and their impacts will be analyzed deeply and many problems of Russian women are underlined in the light of scholars’ ideas from different corners of world. Moreover, if we make a comparison between Russia and other regions in which women suffer from lack of freedom, Russia seem a developed country with given equal rights to men and women. Yet indeed, there are many things that should be mentioned about conventional Russian women who share similar problem and destiny with women from other cultures. Even if it is obvious that Russia carries the traces of communism and egalitarian policy, there are still problems for women caused by gender differences especially in family, professional and social life.
Lower valuation and other problems of women continues in Russian society under the effect of modernism as well as traditionalism and its impact lead to numerous problems such as widespread cohabitations, falling birthrates and gender division in many areas. Russian reforms even today invest in maintaining and reinforcing gender roles, although Western World does not approve such an inequality between genders (Kerig, Alyoshina and
Cited: Goodwin, Robin and Tatiana Emelyanova. “The Perestroika of the Family? Gender and Occupational Differences in Faimly Values in Modern Day Russia.” Sex Roles. Vol. 32, No. 5/6, 1995. Herzog, Shawna. “Russian Women, the State and the Myth of Equality.” California State University, 2009. Koval, Vitalina. Women in Contemporary Russia. Berghahn Books, 1995. Motiejunaite, Akvile and Zhanna Kravchenko. “Family Policy, Employment and Gender-Role Attitudes: a Comperative Analysis of Russia and Sweden.” Journal of European Social Policy. Vol 18(1). 2008:38-49. Sage Publications. Web. 13 March 2012. Patricia K. Kerig, Yulya Y. Alyoshina, Alla S. Volovich. “Gender-Role Socialization in Contemporary Russia.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, 17 (1993): 389-408. Print. Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Stop Violence against Women (STOPVAW) Theodore P. Gerber and Olga Mayarova. “Dynamic Gender Differences in a Post-Socialist Labor Market: Russia” Social Forces, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Jun, 2006): 2047-2075. JSTOR. Web. 9 April 2012. White, Anne. “Gender Roles in Contemporary Russia: Attitudes and Expectations among Women Students.” Europe Asia Studies, Vol. 57, No. 3 (May, 2005):429–455. JSTOR. Web. 26 March 2012.